Synopsis

"Portrait of Wally”, Egon Schiele’s tender picture of his mistress, Walburga (“Wally”) Neuzil, is the pride of the Leopold Museum in Vienna. But for 13 years the painting was locked up in New York, caught in a legal battle between the Austrian museum and the Jewish family from whom the Nazis seized the painting in 1939.

PORTRAIT OF WALLY traces the history of this iconic image – from Schiele’s gesture of affection toward his young lover, to the theft of the painting from Lea Bondi, a Jewish art dealer fleeing Vienna for her life, to the post-war confusion and subterfuge that evoke THE THIRD MAN, to the surprise resurfacing of “Wally” on loan to the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan in 1997.

The “Wally” case brought the story of Nazi art loot into the open, eventually forcing museums in Europe and the U.S. to search their own collections for suspect objects. Many museums ended up returning art to Jewish families who had abandoned hope until “Wally” showed that institutions could be held accountable for holding property stolen during the Holocaust. The case was resolved in dramatic fashion in the summer of 2010, but only after the history of Schiele’s extraordinary painting was unearthed to revisit the crimes of the Holocaust and to witness the reluctance of major institutions in Europe and New York to send the “last prisoners of war” back to their families.

More about the film

“Portrait of Wally”, Egon Schiele’s tender picture of his mistress, Valerie Neuzil, is the pride of the Leopold Museum in Vienna. But until last year the 1912 painting was locked up in New York, caught in a legal battle between the Austria museum and the Jewish family from whom the Nazis seized the painting in 1939.

The documentary PORTRAIT OF WALLY traces the history of this iconic image – from Schiele’s gesture of affection toward his young lover, to the theft of the painting from Lea Bondi, a Jewish art dealer fleeing Vienna for her life, to the post-war confusion and subterfuge that evoke THE THIRD MAN, to the surprise resurfacing of “Wally” on loan to the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan in 1997.

In 1997, when the heirs of art dealer Lea Bondi asked MoMA to hold the painting in New York, the Museum and the Leopold Museum dug in their heels and refused. District Attorney Robert Morgenthau issued a subpoena and launched a criminal investigation. A 13-year battle in court followed, tracking the course of a Holocaust property crime and reopening the wounds of one of the century’s worst tragedies – all at a time when the prices of Egon Schiele’s works rose faster than those of any painter on the art market.

Schiele collector Ronald Lauder found himself caught between several loyalties – he was chairman of MoMA and the founder of the Commission for Art Recovery, an organization committed to returning looted art to the Jews who lost it to the Nazis. Lauder sided with the Museum, and against the Jewish family. So did all the museums in New York – even the Jewish Museum.

The “Wally” case brought the story of Nazi art loot into the open, eventually forcing museums in Europe and the U.S. to search their own collections for suspect objects. Many museums ended up returning art to Jewish families who had abandoned hope until “Wally” showed that institutions could be held accountable for holding property stolen during the Holocaust.
Last summer, thirteen years after “Wally” was spotted on loan at MoMA, the Leopold Foundation paid $19 million in compensation to Lea Bondi’s heirs. (“Wally” was valued at $1 million in 1997.) The picture went back to Vienna, but only after its history was unearthed to revisit the crimes of the Holocaust and to witness the reluctance of major institutions in Europe and New York to send the “last prisoners of war” back to their families.

PORTRAIT OF WALLY the documentary takes you on that journey. The 13-year war over “Wally” was more than a dispute over property stolen from Jews during the Holocaust. It was a battle over history and memory. This time, the truth won.

Director

ANDREW SHEA is a versatile, award-winning director and screenwriter who has enjoyed success in film, television and theatre. His films have premiered at several of the most prestigious and selective film festivals in the world: the Cannes Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival, The Tribeca Film Festival and the South by Southwest Film Festival.

As one critic put it, life teaches the characters in Andrew’s films a whole new set of three R’s: Ruin, Revenge, and Redemption. Santa Fe, starring Gary Cole, Lolita Davidovich and Tina Majorino, explores the destructive allure of cults; The Corndog Man, featuring Noble Willingham (nominated for an Independent Spirit Best Actor award for his performance) as a boat salesman haunted by the past, explores the connection between torment and regret; Forfeit, starring Billy Burke, Sherry Stringfield, Gregory Itzin and Wayne Knight, is at once a heist caper, a psychological thriller and a modern morality tale of reckoning and revelation; Take My Breath Away, the story of a condemned inmate who sells the rights to film his execution in the California gas chamber as a music video, was one of two American shorts that were invited to screen in the International Critics Week of the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.

Andrew is a native of New York City, which is the principal location of his most recent release, Portrait of Wally, a documentary about a Nazi-looted painting by Egon Schiele that was discovered on the walls of the Museum of Modern Art in 1997, triggering a historic court battle that pitted the Manhattan District Attorney, the United States Government and the heirs of a Viennese gallery owner against a major Austrian museum and MoMA. Portrait of Wally premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in April, 2012 and went on to play to excellent notices across North America.

Andrew and his wife, film editor Melissa Shea, live in Austin with their two children. Andrew is a tenured associate professor in the department of Radio-Television-Film at the University of Texas at Austin.

Reviews & Articles

The Association for Research into Crimes Against Art's 3-part series on Portrait of Wally. They took an expert in-depth look at the film and the story of the painting here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

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Seventh Art Releasing distributes unique independent and foreign films of the highest quality with a focus on documentaries. We are dedicated to releasing films that challenge and entertain to the largest possible audience. 7th Art has released award-winning films on , among many other things, music, social and political issues, Jewish history and culture, and human rights.